Clerihew for Dear Letty

CHRISTINA STEAD

Perhaps too long abed,
The late Christina Stead
Left the censors thunderstruck
By the sex in Letty Fox: Her Luck.*

*The book was once considered low
For all the men she gave a go,
Though no reader now would so be struck.
(Pray note the obvious rhyme I duck.)

A Caricature

Daily Dose

From Role Models, by John Waters

"I love to read about anger. A 'feel bad' book always makes me feel good. And no other novel in the history of literature is more depressing than Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children."

From Bookworm

Daily Dose

From Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadimam

CHRISTINA STEAD

"So far, so good. There was rumored drug use in House of All Nations -- and at least one homosexual."

From Stead Made Me Do It: House of All Nations, by Christina Stead, essay by Michael Upchurch

Daily Dose

From A View of My Own: Essays in Literature and Society, by Elizabeth Hardwick

NOTION

"The notion of a large or small masterpiece lying about unnoticed -- a Vermeer in the hayloft -- has always stirred men's hearts."

From The Neglected Novels of Christina Stead

Another Clerihew Down Under

CHRISTINA STEAD

Christina Stead,
Though now long dead,
Drifts on still to glory
On an Ocean of Story.